At the request of the Forums member Beginner, I was going to write an install guide for PCLinuxOS - but the folks at PCLinuxOS have such a good guide already that I will let them explain it and we can discuss the details here.
I am still learning Linux and have used many distributions (distros) including Suse 9 & 10, Mandrake 10, Mepis, Vector Linux, Knoppix, Lycoris, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Fedora Core 5 and Xandros- but I am by no means an expert. I am creating this Guide to help others get aquainted with Linux, and with PCLinuxOS (which I am enamoured with). If you see an inaccuracy, please let me know and I will correct it.
This will be a work in progress- i would appreciate any suggestions, tips and success/failure stories.
- Regarding Partioning your hard drive, see the next post-
- If possible, have another computer available to veiw the install guide while you complete tha install or print up the Official PCLinuxOS Install Guide (below) first.
- Make sure that all of the hardware that you want to be recognized is connected to your computer- this inclues Laptop PCMCIA cards and any internal desktop components.
- Ensure that a laptops' Wifi switch is selected ON.
- Connect the Ethernet Cable to your ethernet card/connection so that the connection will be recognized.
- In order for tha LiveCD to run, you'll have to set ( in the BIOS ) the computers' CDROM as the 1st boot device. Then set the Hard Drive as the 2nd boot device.
TO RUN THE LIVE CD
- Put the CD into your drive and reboot
- When you get to the first screen, hit Enter
- You will then be greeted with a Login Page-
- Select the "Root" user on the left or type "root" in the user name box
- type "root' in the password box
-Enter
This will load the PCLinuxOS into memory. You will get the full KDE Desktop and all of the included apps will be available to use. You now have the entire distro to review AND use.
Please back up all of your data before continuing with the install, as you will working with your hard drive(s) and may lose data.
To start the Install. click the "Install PCLinuxOS" icon on the left side of the desktop, then follow the PCLinuxOS Installation Guide below.
This happens, of course, after you have downloaded the proper ISO file and burned it to a cd. This will be the bootable LiveCD that will run in memory.
You can run all of the apps that would be installed to the hard drive-- it will run much slower than when installed because the applications have to be uncompressed from the CD to memory in order to run. So play with the live CD to get a taste of what an installed PCLinuxOS will be like. If you like it, go for the Hard Drive Install- it's really rather easy.
Post your tips, questions and comments here.
And to all of the Overclockers Forums Guests that are veiwing this guide, I invite you all to join our Forum!
Also, the included PCLinuxOS Disk Partitioning utility works great as well. You can use this if starting off with a new hard drive or want to assign new partitions to an existing drive. Remember, if you remove partitions, you WILL lose all of the data on that drive.
If you resize your Windows partition, make sure you back up all of your data, and defragment the hard drive. Then resize.
DUAL BOOT INSTALL WITH WINDOWS
If you will be running this in a Dual Boot configuration with Windows, Windows should be installed FIRST. The PCLinuxOS install will be done SECOND and will install the Lilo Bootloader. When your computer boots, you will be greeted with a graphical boot selection screen, allowing you to select either PCLinuxOS or Windows.
I recommend using FDISK to create 3 partitions on the Hard drive- a simple way would be to have 2 partitions(one for Windows, one for PCLinuxOS), each approximately 1/2 of the hard drive, and the Linux Swap partition. But the sizes are up to you- partitoning has no hard rules.
You could also create a 4th partition for file storage (as recommended by Forums member =ACID RAIN=) - a FAT32 formated partition to be shared by each OS.
- In FDISK, I would create the 1st partition for Windows, the second for Linux and a 3rd for the Linux Swap File.
- the 1st partition will be Primary- Windows
- the 2nd will be a logical DOS Drive (for Linux)
- the 3rd will be another logical DOS drive for the Linux Swap - recommended size is twice the amount of memory installed (if you have 512mb memory, make the Swap Partition 1024mb, ect)
Install Windows normally, to the 1st partition.
Then put the PCLinuxOS Live CD into your optical Drive and reboot.
When the PCLinuxOS Install begins, you will select the Expert Partition Utility to assign the partitions. You will have to select the partition for Linux ( / ) and for the Swap. Then these partitions will be formatted and the system files will be copied to the hard drive.
This is covered more in depth in the Official PCLinuxOS Install Guide- click the link in the previous post for more info.
SINGLE LINUX BOOT INSTALL
If PCLinuxOS will be the only operating system on your rig, then use the entire hard drive as recommended in the install guide.
You will still have to create the 2 required partitions, one for Linux ( / ) and one for Swap. You can do this with Fdisk or use the PCLinuxOS Partitioning app. The Linux app works great and is very fast.
MULTIPLE LINUX BOOT INSTALL
If not using Windows and you want to install other Linux distros, you can still use FDISK to create as many partitions as you'd like. I would recommend that they are created in different sizes, as this makes it easier to keep track of which distro is on which partition.
You will still need to create one Linux Swap partition- this partition can be shared by each distro. As each distro is installed, you will assign the same Swap partition for each install.
The official PCLinuxOS User Guide from the PCLinuxOS SUpport Staff
INSTALLED APPLICATIONS
There is a boatload of installed software in this distro! I will list each app that is listed in the KDE APP Menu (in order), hyperlink the app to it's home page or info link if avail, and post comments on the one's that I have used. If you know of a more relevent information link than I have found, please let me know via PM and I'll update the link.
If any of the listed apps are unnecessary, you can remove as many as you want with The Synaptic Software Manager.
note- underlined apps(in white) are ]HYPERLINKED to information sites-
Toys
- AMOR Robots!
- Kodo
- Kompos'e
- KTeaTime - a handy timer for steeping tea
- KWorldTime
- XEyes
APPLICATIONS
Accessibility
- Xmag- a desktop magnifier
Archiving
- Cd burning
- GnomeBaker - a GTK2/GNOME cd burning application
- K3b - a feature-rich and easy to handle CD burning application
- Compression
- Ark - Archiving utility
- Konserve - a small backup application for the KDE 3.x environment.
Communications
- KdeprintFax
- KFax
- KFaxView
Development
- Development Enviroments
- IDLE
- Qt Designer - a powerful GUI layout and forms builder
- Qt Linguist - provides an interface that shortens and helps systematize the GUI translation process
- Tools
- Cervisia - an open-source CVS gui frontend for KDE
- Gdb - the GNU debugger
- KBugBuster - a GUI front end for the KDE bug tracking system
- KCacheGrind - a visualization tool for the profiling data generated by Cachegrind and Calltree
- Kompare - a graphical difference viewer that allows you to visualize changes to a file
- KUIViewer - a utility to display and test the user interface (.ui) files generated by Qt Designer
- Umbrello - a Unified Modelling Language diagram programme for KDE
Editors
- Kate - a multi document editor, based on a rewritten version of the kwrite editing widget of KDE
- KEdit - a text editor for the KDE Desktop
- KHexEdit - a hexadecimal editor for the KDE environment
- KRegExpEdit - an editor for editing regular expression in a graphical style (in contrast to the ASCII syntax)
- KWrite - a text editor for KDE
- XEdit - simple text editor for X
File Tools
- emelFM - a file manager that implements the popular two-pane design
- File Manager - Super User mode
- Find Files
- KRename - a powerful batch renamer for KDE
- Krusader - n advanced twin panel (commander style) file manager for KDE
-KTnef - a TNEf file viewer/extractor for KDE
Finances
- KMyMoney - easy to use, personal finance manager for KDE
Monitoring
- Gkellm - a single process stack of system monitors
- HP Printer Toolbox - HP Printer Utility
- KDiskFree - gives you a graphical overview of your systems disks mounts/unmounts
- KJobViewer - Print Spool and Queue Management System
- Kleds Keyboard Applet - a tool intended for keyboards without LEDs
- KSysguard - the KDE Task Manager and Performance Monitor
- KWifimanager - a set of tools which allows you to manage your wireless LAN Network Interface
- KwikDisk - This program gives you a graphical overview of your systems disks
- Mtink - Epson printer utility
- NetApplet - applet that scans for 802.11a/b/g wireless networks and shows you their signal strength and ESSID
- SuperKaramba - a tool that allows you to easily create interactive eye-candy on your KDE desktop
- Xconsole - program displays messages which are usually sent to /dev/console
- Xkill - a utility for forcing the X server to close connections to clients
- XLoad - displays a periodically updating histogram of the system load average
- XRefresh - a simple X program that causes all or part of your screen to be repainted
Publishing
- GhostView - an interpreter for the PostScript language and for PDF
- XDitView - displays ditroff output on an X display
Sciences
- Mathmatics-
- Calculator
Text Tools
- Font Selector
- KCharSelect - Character selection widget
Hardware
- Device Manager - Shows what hardware you have on your system
- HardDrake - tool which ties together many of the tools already included in a GNU/Linux distribution to automate and simplify the process of installing new hardware
- KFloppy Formatter - a utility that provides a straightforward graphical means to format floppy disks
- KRandTray - video resolution and frequency changing utility
- PCLinuxOS Info Tool - utility which gathers most of the system information for troubleshooting
-Proc Configuration
- Redo Lilo - Bootloader Repair Utility
- Removable Storage -removable storage and media options
KDE
- Basically EVERYTHING in the KDE Control Center Tree
Other
- B-A-B - Baghira native style tray utility
- Change Password
- ChBg - for changing desktop background pictures with some period
- IRKick - IR remote Utility
- KCron - n application that schedules programs to be run
- KDat - a tar based tape archiver
- KDE Wallet - a convenient and secure way to manage all your passwords
- KGPG - a simple interface for GnuPG, a powerful encryption utility
- Local Drake (system) - link to the PCLinuxOS Control Center
- Local drake (user) - same as above
- Menudrake - manage the main menu of the KDE graphical interface
- Screensaver - link to screensaver controls.
- User Administration - Mandriva User Administration Utility
Packaging
- Kpackage - is a GUI interface to the RPM, Debian, Slackware and BSD package managers
- Synaptic Software Manager - a graphical package management program for apt.
Printing
- Epson Printing Utility
- Printer Utility Program
- XPP - X Printing Panel
ADDITIONAL APPLICATIONS
- KDE Control Center - provides you with a centralized and convenient way to configure all of your KDE settings
- kusbhome - USB Thumb drive utility
- PCLinuxOS Control Center - System Management Application
Graphics
- digiKam - digital photo management application.
- Gqcam - Webcam Utility
- GQView - an image viewer
- KCDlabel - CD Label Creator
- KColorChooser - Colour chooser for KDE
- KColorEdit - a palette files editor
- KIcionEdit - Icon Editor
- KolourPaint - easy-to-use paint program for KDE
- Kooka - Scan & OCR Suite for KDE
- KPovModeler - a modeling and composition program for creating POV-Ray scenes in KDE.
- Krita - a painting and image editing application for KOffice
- KRuler - a nice little tool to keep control of their screen full of pixels
- KSnapshot - a simple applet for taking screenshots
- Kwickshow - do basic cropping and resizing of photos
- KView - an image viewer program
- Showfoto - a KDE stand alone Photo Editor based on digiKam Image Editor
- The Gimp - the GNU Image Manipulation Program
- Thumber - a multi-purpose digital imaging tool -- a "Swiss army knife" for digital camera owners and imaging enthusiasts.
- Xcam - a graphical camera frontend for SANE
- XSane - for acquiring images with scanners
- XScanImage - graphical user-interface to control an image
acquisition device such as a flatbed scanner or a camera
Sound
- amaroK - a media player for the K Desktop Environment
- aRts Builder - simulates a complete "modular analog synthesizer" on your digital computer
- aRts Control Tool
- Audacity - pen source software for recording and editing sounds
- Aumix - adjusts an audio mixer from X, the console, a terminal, the command line or a script
- EasyTag - a utility for viewing and editing tags for MP3, MP2, MP4/AAC, FLAC, Ogg Vorbis, MusePack and Monkey's Audio files
- Gnormalize - an audio converter, a front end to normalize, an encoder/decoder, a ripper, a metadata (tag) editor and a audio player
- Grip - a cd-player and cd-ripper
- Juk - multimedia playlist and metadata focused interface
- Kaboodle - Embedded multimedia player for KDE
- kamix - An ALSA mixer for KDE
- KAudioCreator - a front-end tool for ripping audio CDs and encoding the wav files using your favorite encoder
- Kmid - a X11 / KDE based midi player for Linux and FreeBSD
- Kmix - an application to allow you to change the volume of your sound card
- KRec
- KsCD - a small, fast, CDDB enabled audio CD player for UNIX® platforms
- Noatun - The super-modular media player for KDE
- StreamTuner - a stream directory browser
- TiMiidity++ - a software synthesizer
- Xmms - a multimedia player for unix systems
Video
- K9Copy - a small utility which allows the copy of DVD on Linux
- Kaffeine - a full featured Multimedia Player for KDE
- Kdenlive - a video editing GUI for KDE using the MLT video framework
- KMPlayer - Video player plugin for Konqueror and basic MPlayer/Xine/ffmpeg/ffserver/VDR frontend for KDE
- Realplayer - Realplayer for Linux
- TVTime - a high quality television application for use with video capture cards on Linux systems
- VLC GUI media player - Multimedia Player
- Xine - Multimedia Player
NETWORKING
File Transfer
- aMule - eMule like P2P client
- BitTorrent creator
- BitTorrent GUI
- gFTP - a multithreaded file transfer client for *NIX based machines
- KGET - a download manager similar to GetRight or Go!zilla.
- Limewire Gnutella P2P Client- P2P Client
Instant Messaging
- Ekiga - a Voice over IP phone allowing you to do free calls over the Internet
- Gaim - a multi-protocol instant messaging (IM) client for Linux
- Kopete - an instant messenger supporting AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo, Jabber, IRC, Gadu-Gadu, Novell GroupWise Messenger, and more.
IRC
- Konversation - a user-friendly IRC client for the K Desktop Environment
- KSirc - the default KDE IRC client
- Xchat - an IRC (chat) program for Windows and UNIX (Linux/BSD) operating systems
Mail
- Kmail - the KDE Mail Client
- Kontact - Personal Information Management Suite
- Korn - A Monitor for Your Email Accounts
- KShowmail - a POP3 mail checker for the KDE
- Ksig - graphical tool for managing multiple email signatures
- Mozilla Thunderbird Excellent Mozilla Email Client
News
- akregator - browse through thousands of internet feeds without the hassle of using a web browser
- gPodder - a Podcast receiver/catcher written in Python and pyGTK
- KLibido - a KDE usenet news grabber for Linux
- KNewsTicker - a news ticker applet for the KDE panel (also known as Kicker)
- Knode - a newsreader for the K Desktop Environment
- Logjam - a GTK client for LiveJournal.com.
- Pan - a newsreader, loosely based on Agent and Gravity
Remote Access
- KNetwork Led
- KPPP - a dialer and front end for pppd, allowing for interactive script generation and network setup
- KPPPLogView - A log viewer for KPPP
- Krdc - Remote Desktop Connection for KDE
- Krfb - a server application that allows you to share your current session with a user on another machine
- Knap
- Putty
- Smb4K - a SMB/CIFS share browser for KDE
- TightVNC - a remote control software package derived from the popular VNC software
- Tkpppoe - a graphical user interface for managing PPPoE connections
- Virtual Network Connection (Rfbdrake) - a tool to setup a client/server remote framebuffer for virtual network computing
WWW / Web Browsers
- Konqueror - the file manager for the K Desktop Environment, Web Browser & universal viewing application.
- Mozilla Firefox - Web browser
- Nvu - A complete Web Authoring System for Linux Desktop users
OFFICE
Accessories
- BasKet - an all-purpose notes taker
- Dictionary
- Glabels - a program for creating labels and business cards
- KBabel Catalog Manager
- KBabel Dictionary
- KBabel - a set of tools for editing and managing gettext PO files
- KCalc - a scientific calculator for KDE
- KJots - a small program that helps you to write down some short notes and organizes them for you
- KNotes - a nice and small tool to scribble down some notices
-KOffice Workspace - a friendly workspace to allow you to work on several KOffice applications at the same time
- KThesaurus
- Tellico - a KDE application for organizing your collections
- Tuxcards - a hierarchical notebook
Address Books
- KAddressBook - n addressbook viewer/frontend for the K Desktop Environment
Databases
- Kexi - n integrated data management application
Graphs
- Karbon14 - a vector-based drawing application for KOffice
- KChart - the KOffice chart drawing application
- KFormDesigner - is meant to be Qt Designer replacement for KDE
- Kivio - an easy to use diagramming and flowcharting application with tight integration to the other KOffice applications
PDA
- Kandy - aims at providing synchronisation of phonebook, organizer and other data on your mobile phone with the data stored on the desktop
- KPalmDOC - provides a user interface to converting between text files and PalmDOC files
- KPilot - a replacement for the Palm Desktop software
- MultiSynK - based on the kitchensync framework
Presentations
- KPresenter - a presentation application
Publishing
- KGhostView - displays and prints PostScript® (.ps, .eps) and Portable Document Format (.pdf) files
- KPDF - a KDE PDF viewer based on xpdf code
- Kugar Designer - a KDE tool for generating business quality reports which can be viewed and printed
- Kugar - a KDE tool for generating business quality reports which can be viewed and printed
- Scribus - Desktop Publishing
Spreadsheets
- KSpread - a scriptable spreadsheet program
Task Management
- Planner
Time Manager
- KAlarm - a personal alarm message, command and email scheduler for KDE
- KArm - a time tracker that integrates with the KOrganizer to do list
- KOrganizer - calendar and scheduling application of the popular K Desktop Environment
- KTimer - a timer application for KDE
Word Processors
- KFormula - a formula editor for KOffice
- KWord - a frame-based word-processing and desktop publishing application TERMINALS
- Konsole - he terminal emulator for the K Desktop Environment
- Terminal Program - Super User Mode
- XTerm - a terminal emulator for the X Window System
- YaKuake - a KDE terminal emulator
UPDATING PCLinuxOS with Synaptic Software Manager
The Synaptic Software Manager is the application you use to update and install/remove software on you system. This excellent program will check for dependencies insuring that a complete install is possible/completed. It doesn't get much easier than this.
Synaptic connects with "Repositories" to obtain the software. Repositories are servers that host these files for PCLinuxOS. Repositories can be added or removed at your discretion.
Here is a shot of the main window-
You can use Synaptic to fully update your system or you can search for a specific application you'd like to install/remove/update.
If the Repository doesn't have the package that you'd like to install, you can also use KPackage to search and install packages available at it's mirrors. KPackage can also be used to to install a package that you download.
The main KPackage Window, Gkrellm searched-
THE PCLINUXOS CONTROL CENTER
Each section has many controls that can help you manage your installation.
Here are some views of the different sections of the PCLinuxOS Control Center-
Boot Management
Hardware Management
Mount Points
Networking Management
Security
System Management
Online Administration
Downloadable Applications (that I like)
AVG Antivirus - Download the Mandrake RPM and install with KPackage. Very good scanner. Very useful if you'd like to scan a Windows partition on your system (if you are dual booting with Windows).
I would recommend you have a fat32 partition shared for each OS, it makes files across file systems easier if your windows partion is NTFS (as mine always are).
I did my laptop like this:
Just some food for thought
What I didn't mention is you also need to create a swap that is (generally) twice your RAM. I generalized in the pic and perhaps I shouldn't have, but imagine a swap partition that is 1GB between FAT and EXT3 (1GB for 512MB of ram, for instance).
Good tips- I'll add the Swap tip to the partitioning guide. The FAT32 partition is a great idea! Allowing use of this partition to store all of the files that you want each operating system to access.
from reading the helpful link you posted, the ext2 ifs driver can make a partition that windows and linux can share?
above i have 20gb for windows fat32 and another 20gb fat32 for linux. with the ext2 ifs driver i can have one fat32 partition at 40gb?
sorry for all the questions guys, i'm really psyched about putting dual boot on my soon to be delivered laptop and implement linux the best way possible.
thanks for the guide itshondo, i know this is going to motivate others to get involved in the wonderful world of linux.
Nope. Windows on an NTFS, linux on an ext3, and then one shared FAT32 partition:
based of a 80gb laptop hdd
windows - 15gb os partition
windows swap file(2 x amount of ram) partition
fat32 partion - 40gb
linux - 15gb os parition
linux swap file(2 x amount of ram) partition
or something. You don't want to put linux programs on FAT32. I use the ext2 IFS driver and an ext3 partition as my shared. I also have /home on a seperate aprtition so that when I screw up my os, my user's files are safe (but I'm generally doing things you shouldn't do when this happens).
@gnufsh
from reading the helpful link you posted, the ext2 ifs driver can make a partition that windows and linux can share?
based of a 80gb laptop hdd windows - 15gb os partition windows swap file(2 x amount of ram) partition windows fat32 partion - 20gb linux - 15gb os parition linux swap file(2 x amount of ram) partition linux fat32 partiion - 20gb
That's right itshondo, Optionally you could make your windows partition fat32, but I prefer NTFS for all windows partitions, and since the linux write driver (captiventfs) is limited currently, I prefer to have a shared partition for linux writes. gnufish mentioned a great point, that being running the ext2 driver for windows, which I have looked at but not tried yet (but I am sure it works great because I trust what gnufish says, he knows far more about linux than I do ).
If your windows install is fat32 and you run the ext2 driver, both OSes will see each others' drives and you have absolutely no need for the middle "shared" partition.
After installing PCLinux, you should be able to get the latest Nvidia drivers by using the Synaptic Software Manager. Once you start it up, it will check for the latest updates for your current software status. Then search for Nvidia, and mark the correct driver number as "Mark for Upgrade". Then when you select Apply, it will download the update, remove the old driver, and install the one you selected.
Much easier than downloading and installing.
Also, select Settings, then Repositories, and put X's in the top 4 boxes- the last 2 repositories don't want to cooperate and will make the app stall (not crash).
The additional repositories will allow Synaptiic to check these other servers for updates.
It's unlikely. FAT is outdated, and is really still only used because of it's compatibility and simplicity. This makes it good for things like flash drives, and cross os partitions, but little else. The main reason for increasing the size of the File Allocation Table is to allow bigger partitions. Since FAT32 can already go up to 2TB in size, and usb flash drives aren't likely to get that big anytime soon, there really isn't a need for the increase in FAT sizes.
I wouldn't have believed it. I have pclinuxos installed as a dual boot and am writing this message on my Linux system thanks to your posts.
Great Guide!
I wouldn't have believed it. I have pclinuxos installed as a dual boot and am writing this message on my Linux system thanks to your posts.
Great Guide!
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